In this article we explain that sometimes you can claim workers’ compensation benefits as well as common law damages, even if your injury didn’t happen at work.

Injury at work

If you are injured at work, you can claim compensation. It doesn’t matter how the injury happened or whose fault it was, WorkCover will pay a percentage of your weekly wages and fund your medical treatment.

Injury on your way to and from work

It is less known that you can claim compensation even if your injury happened on your way to work or on your way home. You are covered the moment you leave your house and until you arrive home.

There are some exceptions. The one that commonly applies is that you can’t get compensation if the injury happens during or after a substantial deviation from or interruption of or your journey.

For example, if on your way home you take a detour to visit your elderly parents, and then you have a crash, this could be considered both a substantial deviation from and an interruption of your journey. On the other hand, if you stop for petrol that’s probably not an issue.

As with most claims, the lines can sometimes get blurry. For example, we have successfully claimed compensation for a client who suffered injury while taking a detour with their motorcycle to ride on a scenic route before arriving home. It’s not actually a requirement that you take the shortest way home from work, and we were able to prove that the detour which our client took was actually his usual way home on that particular day each week.

The point is, whether any of the exceptions apply depends on the individual circumstances of each case.

There are other scenarios where you are covered even if you are not at work. Some examples include: while attending a trade or training school as required by the employer, or if you have multiple jobs, then on your way from the first job to the second.

What WorkCover will pay for

WorkCover will fund your medical treatment costs, as a private patient. If you can’t work, WorkCover will also pay you weekly a percentage of your wages. This starts at 85% of your normal weekly wages, until it is reduced to 75% after 26 weeks. After 2 years, it is reduced to the rate of a single pension.

Lump sum common law damages?

If your crash was someone else’s fault, you can make a common law damages claim against their CTP insurer. You don’t have to choose between a workcover claim and a common law damages claim – you can claim both at the same time.

25% Cap on legal costs

In all of our personal injury compensation matters, we act on a  No Win – No Fee basis. What that means is, there’s no upfront cost to you.

In Queensland, most compensation firms will charge you 50% of your compensation amount – the maximum allowed at law. This is very expensive. Our fee is different. We will cap our fee at 25% . Remember also, these are the maximum fees we will charge. If our fee in your claim is less, then we charge the lesser amount.

Before you engage us, we will provide you a written Disclosure Notice and a Client Service Agreement. These documents set out in detail the service we provide, as well as our fees and outlays. Before you sign anything, you can take these documents home with you, and study them with your family. You can take as long as you need, there is never any pressure from us. If anything in these documents doesn’t make sense to you, we can discuss it with you and you are free to ask another lawyer to give you advice.  And remember, no win – no fee agreements come with a 5 day cooling off period for extra peace of mind.